SFI Poster on the JNUSU Demo at UGC

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SFI Pamphlet dated 20th Aug '07

20/08/07

Whatever happened to the radicalism of DSU!!

Friends,

In the last few months this campus has been a witness to the worst kind of opportunism and profound political ideological bankruptcy from the biggest proponents of revolution (the DSU). From their shameful glorification of the Gherao of the registrar on the 19th of February to the abject surrender in front of the administration (a class enemy in DSU’s terminology) things have come a full circle for them. Unable to overcome their frustration and guilty conscience for this surrender and betrayal of the mandate of the student community, which has even robbed them of their petty bourgeois radical rhetorics, they have unleashed a series of baseless and ridiculous attacks on the SFI and the office of JNUSU.

Devoid of any political and moral authority because of their own surrender before the administration by paying the fines (which can only be justified by their extreme eagerness to get the punishments revoked and a strong aversion for any principled struggle) they are increasingly succumbing to the malicious right wing slander against the SFI and the JNUSU. However, contradictions galore heavily if one looks at the positions DSU has been taking in order to hide its infantile petty bourgeois treachery vis-à-vis the JNU student movement. After the incident of 19th February the DSU took no time to brand everyone an agent of the administration who termed the gherao as regrettable. Even when the resolution of the JNUSU council was passed by the UGBM they violated the resolution by expressing regret for inconvenience caused if any in their individual appeal letters. If the SFI, JNUSU and a large part of the teaching community were agents of the administration when they termed the gherao as regrettable why did the DSU express regret at all? Did the fear of punishments make them comfortably abdicate their principled position?

During the whole period of agitation against punishments, the same JNUSU was the most radical body for the comrades of DSU. Has the JNUSU suddenly changed its character in a few days? Or is it the case that now the punishments have been revoked and DSU can once again indulge in sectarian attacks on the SFI and JNUSU?

Why did the activists from DSU not even try and put up a fight against the "unjust" fines imposed by the administration? How is it the case that for the people whose mission is to "reclaim the union from compromise driven political formulations" have completely changed their political position vis-à-vis the punishments in just 6 months? On the 20th of February it was revolutionary to glorify the gherao and any regret was sheer betrayal and treachery. On the 20th of August expressing regret and submitting fines has become the hallmark of revolution for the ultra left in the campus. One wonders if the goalposts of radicalism for these revolutionaries are decided by the mirror image of what the SFI is doing in this campus and not on any principled uncompromising ideological basis.

The hollow logics and self defeating arguments of the DSU by which they are trying to put the blame of everything on the SFI and JNUSU President is aptly captured by Com Stalin’s description of the Mensheviks in Russia. He said,

"There are two groups of Marxists. Both work under the flag of Marxism and consider themselves ‘genuinely’ Marxists. Nevertheless, they are by no means identical. More, a veritable gulf divides them, for their methods of work are diametrically opposed to each other….The first group usually confines itself to an outward acceptance, to a ceremonial avowal of Marxism. Being unable or unwilling to grasp the essence of Marxism, being unable to put it into practice, it converts the living, revolutionary principles of Marxism into lifeless, meaningless formulas….Discrepancy between word and deed is the chief malady of this group.[preaching radicalism to the students and accepting the punishment by the administration by paying fines] Hence the disillusionment and perpetual grudge against fate[it is because of SFI and JNUSU that we can not do anything], which time and again lets it down and makes a ‘dupe’ of it. …Comrade Tyszka described this group very aptly at the London Congress when he said that it does not stand by, but lies down on the point of view of Marxism." (Excerpt from Lenin as the organizer and leader of the Russian Communist Party).

We warn the DSU against indulging in such malicious and unprincipled attacks on the SFI and the office of JNUSU to overcome their own sense of betrayal and treachery to the student community. Rather than preaching radicalism to the SFI and student community they should try and provide an explanation for the extra mile they have gone in placating the administration by paying the fines which they themselves termed as unjust.

From their shameful justification of the Gherao to the unprincipled compromise with the administration by paying fines, DSU’s acts smell of an unprincipled liberalism best described by Comrade Mao, "…To be aware of one’s own mistakes and yet make no attempt to correct them, taking a liberal attitude towards oneself….liberalism is a manifestation of opportunism and conflicts fundamentally with Marxism…"(Excerpt from Combat Liberalism)

We appeal to the student community to politically isolate these forces and maintain a rock solid unity which would carry forward the legacy of JNU student movement.

Sd/- Roshan, President SFI-JNU; Rajiv, Secretary SFI-JNU.